Wasp Barcode Technologies: The Barcode Solution People

Is it the right time to add another team member?

How do you know when it’s the right time to add another team member?  Before you reach out to the classifieds or LinkedIn ask yourself a couple questions to really see where you and your company stand.  Below are three questions you should ask yourself, and possibly your current staff, before you decide to hire another employee: Is there enough time for you or your staff to get work done? If there just aren’t enough hours in the day for work to get completed, there are more orders pending than your company can fulfill and other items are falling by the wayside, than it may be time to bring in more resources.  Review the retention rates of your customers; if you discover you’ve lost customers or have received complaints about missing orders or poor quality, this could be a direct result of tasks falling through the cracks. When people are over-worked or over-tasked they can become disorganized, make mistakes and their level of quality and performance can drop.  Don’t assume, however, these results are the product of a lazy employee.  Your employees probably can step up to the challenge – otherwise they wouldn’t still be at your high-demanding company – just remember, you can’t expect perfection if your employees are running in a million different directions. Are there tasks or “jobs” you and/or your employees could use some help with? If bookkeeping isn’t your forte and you find yourself making stupid mistakes because you’re trying to keep the data, company logs and accounts up-to-date while maintaining the other functions of your company, it may be time to bring someone else who specializes in theses particular skills.  This is true for any business function that seems to be doing poorly compared to the other areas of your business.  Bring in someone who is good and enjoys bookkeeping, accounting or something else that you aren’t especially good at. Do you have the capital to bring on another employee at this time? It can often be the case that your business forecast indicates you could sustain another employee in several months; so, you choose to hire now, figuring that the money is coming anyways.  Be sure that even though your financial forecasts imply monetary growth, if the prediction isn’t accurate you can still maintain another individual on the payroll.  If it’s clear that you have too much to do, but are worried that money may be an issue, than you should get a good handle on the books, especially cash flow and profitability. One you understand where your money is coming from and going you might be able to cut back in other areas in order to allocate funds to a new hire. What are some other items to consider when hiring a new employee?  Do you have any stories or anecdotes to help other readers make this tough decision?